Ground Truth Trekking Journeys

The concept of Ground Truth Trekking hearkens back to the expeditions of centuries past, when adventures were some of the first ways people learned about remote corners of the world. Our philosophy of adventure is not about record-setting, but is built instead on the belief that expeditions help us learn about our world. Erin and Hig, two of the founders of Ground Truth Trekking, began this idea with journeys to the proposed Pebble Mine, and from Seattle to the Aleutian Islands. In later years, the concept has expanded, bringing more adventurers, more places, and more issues - from climate change to gold mining, to the future of Alaska, and from southwest Alaska to southern Greenland.

2015 - Bering Straits Spring:Erin, Hig, and the kids ski and walk and maybe paddle along the edge of the Seward Peninsula, around 500 miles, from March to June 2015. We'll set off on skis, tracing the edge of the Seward Peninsula. We'll follow the sea ice or the rolling hills, on snow machine trails or not. Our kids will follow along on their own tiny skis, or homemade kick sleds, or flop their tired little bodies onto our already-heavy loads. We'll burn driftwood in our collapsible titanum stove--if we can find driftwood. We'll travel eight miles in a day. Or we won't. We'll ski the whole way, or we'll strip the runners off the packrafts—walking and paddling as the land thaws beneath our feet. We'll visit half a dozen villages along the way: Teller, Brevig Mission, Wales, Shishmaref, Deering, and Candle. We'll be farther west than I've ever been, and in colder weather than our kids have ever been. We'll have an adventure.

2012 - Wild Revelations: Andrew Mattox walks from Lake Iliamna to the Revelation Mountains, then floating out to McGrath during June/July 2012. This journey looks at mining, geology, and one of the less-traveled parts of Alaska. This journey page is currently offline for updating.

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Map of Ground Truth Trekking journeys within Alaska

2011 - Life on Ice: Erin and Hig set out with their two and a half year old and ten month old children to spend two months living on the shifting, melting surface of one of North
America's largest glaciers. Trekking over 100 miles between a series of camps
on
the Malaspina Glacier, we traveled from the ice-locked Samovar Hills,
across the vast lobe of the glacier, and around its melting coastal
edge. Along the way, we weathered the fall storms of Alaska's remote
and harsh Lost Coast, lugged 50 pounds of kids across rubble fields,
ice, and beaches, and explored climate change in action. From dramatic
coastal erosion to newborn lakes and disappearing rivers, this 1000
square mile glacier is the most dynamic place we've ever seen. Slideshow

2010 - The Chukchi Sea at Toddler Speed: Erin and Hig, along with their one and a half year old son and unborn daughter, spend a month trekking over cliffs covered with thousands of screaming birds, along the edge of
long lagoons, over tundra hills in blazing fall colors, and through
remote arctic villages... 300 miles along the Chukchi Sea coast and the Noatak River, weathering a few storms along the way, and exploring everything from ancient villages, to coastlines shifting and eroding with climate change, to the Red Dog Mine. Slideshow

2010 - Alaska's Coal Country: Erin and Hig, along with their one and a half year old son and unborn daughter, tramped through the swamps of western Cook Inlet, and the dry bluffs of the interior, exploring the present and potential future of Alaska coal development: at the Chuitna Coal Mine prospect and the area around Usibelli Mine. Slideshow

2006 - Where Threatened Waters Flow: Erin and Hig and their friend Tom spend a month following the two watersheds downstream of the proposed Pebble Mine in a circle that stretches over 400 miles, from the mine site to Bristol Bay, and back alont the shores of Lake Iliamna, visiting villages along the way.

More Journeys: Read about over a dozen older trips on our old AK Trekking website.

Read about the adventures here, learn more about the issues behind them, and see our photos and YouTube channel for more visuals. For those of you embarking on your own adventures, you may want to read about our gear and food choices here.